Part 13

STRANGE AND ORDINARY

Unfortunately for Kim, she'd find out that she wasn't what was holding herself back. Motivation, drive, determination, usually a valuable quality, counts for almost naught when faced with the reality of a nearly impossible objective.

Edward got the bad news when he arrived home from work and Kim told him in an agonized tone about her apartment hunt:

"It's even worse than I thought. I can't afford ANYTHING here!"
"None of them?"
"Everything I looked at was out of my range. There were a couple of apartments that I could almost afford, but they were in awful neighborhoods. I'm sorry, Edward…I can't move here. Not now. I'll have to go back home."

Edward's stare was a thousand yards long. Without saying a word, he walked slowly over to a living room chair, folded his arms in a criss-cross, and sunk his head into his chest. Kim followed him, knelt on the ground next to his chair, and held his arm.
Edward could barely speak: "If I follow you home, your neighbors would-…"
"It's okay. You don't have to come back to my neighborhood ever again." Her manners reminded him very much of Peg.

In his imagination, Edward was building Kim a perfect Los Angeles house: a tiny, cozy bungalow, painted cream yellow, like the blankets and canopy of her bed, so it'd feel familiar to her. He didn't know how to build a house, but he loved her enough to learn how. And he was despairing enough that he wasn't too far away from actually going forward with the idea.

That's not all", Kim continued. "This morning, I talked with Suzanne. I told her you and I are dating now, and she didn't really take it that well."

Edward remembered seeing Suzanne numerous times during his stay in Kim's neighborhood, most notably as a passive accomplice to Jim's robbery, and during a family dinner when, doubting if his hands were sanitary, she refused a slice of pork roast he'd cut. She'd undoubtedly be surprised to know he was now a full-fledged performance chef.

"Do you care about that?", Edward asked, almost testing her.
"She'll have to accept we're together. I'd never break up with you over that. But I wish she supported me. She's been my best friend since I was 11. So this is like a double-whammy."
"Do you know why she doesn't like it?"
"She was saying she's worried you might turn out to be troubled like Jim, but I don't see that happening. You know what I think it is? She's had a lot of boyfriends, and so far, things haven't worked out with any of them. So maybe she's wary of loving someone? Or jealous of us? I just pray she'll change her mind. I think she will, I know her."

Kim stopped talking, cleared her throat, and took a look around Edward's house.
"Come to think of it", she added, "You must be making really good money if you have a house here."

Edward shrugged. He'd only completed one year of life outside his mansion and was still learning what things were "supposed" to cost. Evanthas, the general manager of Sideshow Bistro, had helped him open a bank account, told him to deposit his earnings there, and taught him how to make withdrawals for when he needed to pay for things. Very basic, but so far he'd had no problems.

"We'll come up with something.", Edward said hopefully. "Maybe we'll get an idea later."
"Yeah…" Kim agreed. "In the meantime, let's just…be happy in the moment. We still have a few days left."

Slower, slower
We don't have time for that
All I want is to find an easier way
To get out of our little heads

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice,
I'll be right beside you, dear
-Snow Patrol

It was New Year's Eve, and outdoors, the fireworks erupted in bangs, sizzles and whistles which made the house flicker with light. Edward and Kim made their way to the back door, opened it, and stood in his backyard as they observed the explosions that gave birth to the new year. Kim tilted her head up and they kissed delicately. For that night, the pain of the impending separation was kept at bay. Come morning, however, the tides of woe came rushing in.

At the restaurant, Edward channeled his woes into his cooking; during one dinner, he arranged rice, steamed vegetables, scrambled egg and meat into the shape of hearts, and then karate chopped them in half violently. The audience applauded as they always did. How many of them, he wondered, knew what it signified? How many of them understood what he was going through? He hadn't obtained the desired sympathetic reaction, and he wasn't sure why. Were they too hungry to care? Were they dumb? Feeling a bit resentful, he decided against repeating the performance for his next table.

He also took his woes with him to the Home. Millvina had everyone out in the yard to tend the garden. Each person was given a task in the sequence and then after a while was rotated, so they understood how the tasks connected to one another.

Edward didn't seem enthusiastic about any of his tasks. Once Millvina had gotten her other gardeners situated, she turned to Edward:
"Sugar, are you feeling a little warm? Or cold?"
He shook his head. "Kim has to go home soon, and go back to college."

Grant was tilling the soil within earshot. "Who's Kim?", he asked. Grant and Kim hadn't met the night of the Italian dinner. They'd spent their time socializing with other people.
"My girlfriend. She won't be able to come back for months…" His voice became hoarse and trailed off.
"Awww. That's just like Romeo And Juliet. 'Parting is such sweet sorrow…'" he recited the line in character.
Millvina reprimanded him: "Grant, please take this more seriously. Eddie's really hurting."
"I'm sorry, Edward."
"Don't worry", Edward eased him. He turned back to Millvina: "She wanted to get an apartment here. But they were all too expensive."
"Well, we've got five vacant rooms here. If she's interested, I can ask Hugo and he can interview her to see if she'd be a good fit."

It had completely slipped Edward's mind that the Home could be a dwelling place for Kim. Mainly because, as wonderful as Kim was to him, she didn't seem very peculiar. She didn't have scissors for hands, she was born with eyes and she hadn't lost her ability to sleep. But then again, Dr. Ravenscroft had told him that everyone was peculiar in their own way, so that would have to include Kim.

"Really?"
"Really."
"…I'll ask her."

Two days later, on Edward's request, Kim filled out a residency application and found herself in the Doctor's office. The aura was sophisticated, yet informal. Massive shelves, made from aspen, stretched from floor to ceiling and across two walls. They contained books, pamphlets, photographs, heirlooms, and clever sayings etched on plaques. An Art Noveau painting of a bridge leading to an orchard had been hung on another wall, near his diplomas. Water poured from a small stone fountain into a basin filled with pebbles. Millvina was there, playing with a few tabby cats who mewed conspicuously in the back of the room. Dr. Ravenscroft sat behind a desk, going over her application and looking at Kim.

"It's been a great honor", he began, "Befriending Edward. He's been with us just over a week, but I feel like a child at play around him. Like I've gone on permanent vacation. He has stars in his eyes, that's certain. And I sense that your presence brings out his noblest aspects, Kimberly."
"Thank you. We recently got back together after a year apart. There were some horrible things that happened to him."
"The poor man…" Dr. Ravenscroft muttered. "This world can be very dark. But Edward's a light. And when it's dark, you can see the light better."
Kim liked this analogy.
"Is he…unready to live with another person? Is this why you're requesting a room?"
"Well, I actually want to live apart for a while. For my own sake. I need to gain some more independence. That'll be easier if we live in different houses. Plus…"
She leaned near Dr. Ravenscroft, cupped her hand to his ear and whispered something.
"Oh yes, I agree. That's wise, that's cautious."

Kim leaned back into her chair.
"Do you see yourself as peculiar, ma'am?"
"No, not really. I'm probably kind of boring. I try to be ordinary, if you can call it that."
"Ordinary people are simply great. The human race would die out if it didn't have any stability to it. Ordinary people are where we get our stability from. So, thank you for your invaluable contributions." Kim couldn't help but laugh; his wittiness was contagious.
"But, this is where the peculiar make their homes. Now, it would be peculiar if a self-described 'ordinary' girl lived here. So you'd fit right in. Ha!" Dr. Ravenscroft cracked himself up. "But also, you're a sun in Edward's sky. It would benefit him to have you living nearby. Which is why I have an interest in extending residency to you."

Kim was very slow in responding to the offer. Mentally, she was skydiving into a great unknown, though she had faith in things not yet known. Dr. Ravenscroft didn't rush her; he understood the weight of the decision. Finally, she responded: "I'll try it."

He handed her a booklet. "As a condition of being granted a room here, please study this. It contains information you need, rules to follow, your work schedule and list of duties. I've also included what I hope is a helpful guide to, what we might broadly call, 'peculiarity', and the unique needs of those who exhibit it."
"Thank you, I'll read it when I get home."
"You're welcome. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Yeah. ...this might be a stretch but, can you offer an internship? I mean, that'd be alot easier than transferring colleges. I'll transfer if I have to, but I just thought I'd see."
"I would love to offer internships Ms. Boggs, but I don't have any real...material, or assignments, for someone just starting out. My apologies."

Kim swallowed and nodded. This meant her path would involve the labyrinthine procedure of transferring colleges, a small price to pay for a room to herself.

"No real assignments?!" Kim and Dr. Ravenscroft looked to the back of the room, at Millvina, as she interjected. "What about all the interviews you wanted to give? The book you're always talking about writing?"
"I'll start that when I get the time to, dear."
"That's what you said last year...", Millvina retorted in an annoyed sing-song tone. "...and the year before that, and the one before that too. I'm telling you, you could turn this into an internship."
"I haven't been the most punctual, no..." Dr. Ravenscroft said regretfully. "But the book is going to be arduous enough for me, and that's with 25 years in the field. I'm not selfish enough to shove that burden over to someone without my experience."
"You don't know what she can do. You haven't even asked her if she wants to do it."

The Doctor was now in checkmate. He looked, with some uncertainty, at Kim, whose seemed open and willing to hear more.

"Please pay attention, Ms. Boggs. This will take some time to explain."

Dr. Ravenscroft had long been planning a book about all of the peculiar people in his life. He wanted to conduct dozens and dozens of interviews with both past and current residents, and market it towards health practitioners, educators and the general public, for the benefit of those who society might cast aside as "misfits". He'd even though of a title; Peripheral Species: How Some Of The World's Most Peculiar Humans Think, Feel, Love, And Live. Yet, because of his tendencies towards procrastination and crippling perfectionism, he'd barely gotten started. The only part of the book that existed was a general outline.

In the process of explaining the book's concept, Kim's syllabus took form: brainstorm as many interview questions as she could across numerous categories, submit the questions to Dr. Ravenscroft so he could select the best ones, interview one or two residents per day and record the answers given.

"If you want me to do that, I'd do the best I can." She was ready to be the good soldier, obeying her officers.
She and the Doctor shook hands.
"You see?" Millvina chided her husband with a smirk. "You never know until you ask."
"Yes...I didn't know. I really didn't know."

When she returned to Edward's place, Kim told him the promising news. About living in a room at the Home. About the likely possibility of using her time there for college credits and work experience. Edward's mood swung greatly upward as she explained. He could see thousands of doorways, once bolted shut, now opening, and across the threshold lay a future with Kim in it.

"What happens now?", he asked.
"I've got to write a letter to the chairman of my school's psychology department. They have to approve internships. Keep your fingers crossed that they do!"
Edward lifted his arms and crossed his index scissors so they overlapped with his middle scissors, snipping them for added visual flair. "Like this?"
Kim nodded and smiled. "Just like that."

She'd return to Florida to see family and friends, write the necessary letter to her college, and box up some of her belongings. Meanwhile, Grant loaned Dracula to Edward and every night after work, he'd read the macabre tale of a man who'd studied black magic and made himself a beast, cursed to feed on the blood of the living. He was reminded of his own bad behavior after being betrayed by Joyce and Jim, and wondered if he would've become something like a vampire if he'd grown any worse. He chose good and wanted to be good. But the potential for evil was lurking in him too, he noticed, and he must starve it.

One night, as he'd reached the midpoint of the book, the phone in his house rang. He answered and said hello.
Kim's voice, victorious, came through the other end: "The college accepted my internship proposal. I'll be back in a week."